Prince Harry backs downIt’s not often that Pol Position gets to cover the world of international politics, so when we heard that Prince Harry would be in town on an official visit, and moreover he would be playing in a c...

The Choe-Choe train gets a-rollin'Astute readers of Pol Position might remember that last week we brought you the story of S.J. Jung, a candidate for the 20th District City Council seat being vacated by John Liu, and Jung’s impress...

A Friendly Meeting Between FriendsThey say that politics makes for some strange bedfellows, and what we love about Memorial Day is that those bedfellows usually make public appearances in the street, where they have to make nice an...

Grapevine Says Ognibene is Back in the 30th
Former Middle Village Republican councilman Tom Ognibene hasn't had enough? After being term-limited out of the City Council in 2001 and losing in a special election for the seat in June 2008, word...

Will Fast Food Die a Slow Death? Naw.Your kid is too fat, but don't worry, it's not your fault. That's the message sent by Councilman Eric Gioia who this week proposed legislation to ban fast food restaurants from opening within a ten...

Peter is Koo-Koo for Liu's SeatKoo Announces Council Run For Liu Spot Proverbial Republican candidate Peter Koo announced Monday that he is officially running for the 20th Council District in Queens, which is currently held by J...

Everybody in the Election Pool
As the 2009 city elections stare the spring-struck citizens of New York down from their perch in the future, one thing becomes extraordinarily clear: it’s going to be a heck of a race. At this time...

We Aren't Shilling for Bloomy, or Are We?In the hot race to be the next mayor of New York City, it’s no surprise to hear that dirty tricks are being pulled. After all, politics was built on a foundation of slung mud that sort of collected...

30 Rock the VoteNo, that’s not Tracy Jordan standing next to 30 Rock creator and star Tina Fey, it’s actually Mark Weprin, who is currently an assemblyman, but has his eye set on the seat being vacated by his brot...

Meghan McCan’t Talks to Broadcasting King
After leading teeny-bopping Republicans through the 2008 election, Meghan McCain has been espousing some very non–conservative views in some very public places. Throughout the presidential campaign...

Happy Birthday/Fundraising Pete!Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. held a birthday/fundraising party at Central Lounge in Astoria Thursday night, but unlike most elected officials, he actually entertained the crowd instead of just tak...

We Here Twitters of a Queens Beep ChallengeDave Kerpen may have only formed an exploratory committee to investigate a possible run for Queens borough president, but the fact that he hasn’t officially announced his candidacy hasn’t stopped h...

Press Releases We'd Like to SeeIn the past few weeks, a major metropolitan daily newspaper ran a cartoon that many felt was in extremely poor taste. While we would rather not comment on the content of the cartoon nor print the n...

One Bottle is Never Enough
How many bottles of cologne does it take for the stink of a ridiculous controversy to be completely erased? The answer is none, because rather than erase or even mask an awful smell, cologne only a...

US investigators launched dawn raids Tuesday on dozens of Los Angeles locations suspected of offering "maternity tourism" services for mostly Chinese mothers wanting to give birth in the United States. The raids targeted apartment complexes in the Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga, Rowland Heights and Walnut districts outside LA where the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says foreign clients are housed. "Such businesses provide travel and lodging services to pregnant foreign nationals interested in coming to the United States to give birth so their offspring will be American citizens," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. According to ICE, the maternity tourism businesses cater mostly to Chinese women who pay $15,000-$50,000 for the services, which can include getting social security numbers and US passports for their offspring.

By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have made an argument that many Israelis support in warning Congress on Tuesday about a potential nuclear deal with Iran, but critics asked whether it was worth the widening rift with the White House. The address was broadcast live on Israeli television and radio, and came at a politically sensitive time -- just two weeks before a closely contested election in which Netanyahu is seeking a fourth term. Israeli political commentators called it a polished performance by the U.S.-educated politician, but agreed with President Barack Obama's assessment that Netanyahu offered nothing new in his criticism of U.S.-led talks with Iran. Netanyahu could use a boost: an opinion poll released several hours before the speech gave the center-left Zionist Union 24 seats to 21 for Likud in the 120-member parliament.